October and November Releases for Infinity!

Hello there dear Mayanauts! Now that things have calmed down a bit and we're set for the next few months here in Japan I thought I'd get back up to speed. First off I wanted to catch up on my Infinity reporting. There has been all kinds of neat stuff being revealed about N3, but I simply don't have time to cover it all so refer you instead to the likes of Datasphere, Mayacast and Beasts of War for that. Instead I'll try to keep up with the new releases.

I missed October, but since there are only two November releases I thought I might just as well do a post with both months releases! Let's start with November...

Kasym Beg, super bad-ass Kum Chieftan really looks the part and would fit right in in an early Robert Rodriguez movie. Following up on the revamped Kum bikers from a couple of months ago we now have their most renowned chieftan. Like I said then the model is absoulutely spectacular, but I can't but help miss the old monobikes. Still, this guy would be high on my list if I played Haqqislam! We don't have stats for him yet, but if he's anything like his predecessor Izzat Beg (who he killed!) he'll be a nice bag of tricks to add to your force.

Alright, now here's the really big drop of November; a totally revamped Combined Army Starter box! This might get a little lengthy. We got to see some sneak peeks earlier in the year and now here we are. The Exrah have gone the way of the Squats and their successors are something completely new. Unidron Batroids are the new (remote) line troops and are fairly similar to the Ikadron that I really like. These are a bit thinner (no Baggage) and comes with the awesome sounding Plasma Carbine! While not as devastating as a proper Plasma Rifle I'm glad to see more plasma for the Combined Army as that is a kind of signature of theirs. Then we have two Sygmaa who, who are Tohaa who are collaborating with the EI. The Fracta is some kind of drop troop sporting the neat "wings" first introduced with the sepsitorized Ko Dali (*sob*). The Maakrep Trackers Unit carries a spectacular looking HMG (first in a vanilla starter? I think so) and the name suggests to me that it will have some kind of visor for camo hunting. Both great looking models that still have something a little Tohaa-esque to them but with conventional armour and some cool looking helmets. Finally there's the Umbra Legate that is, apparently, a martial arts trooper that is second in command in the armies of the EI. Second under the Charontids I assume. This guy looks almost stereotypically evil and would fit in perfectly in a Star Wars movie if you just changed his sword into a lightsabre. Again a very nice looking mini that has grown on me a lot since I first saw it.

Now, while this box is a humongous improvement over the original I'm still a little sad to see the more inhuman aspects of the Combined Army disappear. While many of the old Exrah sculpts had a clear man in a rubber suit-feel to them I certainly think they could have been re-imagined and resculpted to great effect. Sure, there will always be the great Tyranid spectre looming over any non-humanoid alien miniatures, but I'm sure CB could have made something unique with the Exrah. Instead we now have simply another army of almost-humans that don't differ all that much from the forces of the Human Sphere. Don't get me wrong, the actual models in the new starter are pewter perfection, but I still think this was a lost opportunity. Still, CB usually know what they're doing and I can feel those Unidrons beckoning me...

Now, on to October!

Yay, new Dog-Warriors for Ariadna! We have seen renders of these and the finished models don't disappoint! Like the Antipode pack the new dog-warriors have totally updated the look and even fairly recent releases like the Cameronian and McMurrough pales in comparison. While I like the slightly more alien looking Antipodes better these are still damn cool models, There's some really neat detailing, like that face scars matching the dog-warrior and dogface, and good weapon scaling making the chainguns look like pistols in the hands of the dog-warriors. At 28 points for a 6-4 superjumping monster with three wounds I think they're a steal! Of course, things might change any day now with N3. :)

Next up we have a Haqqislam Janissaries with HMG. Now here's a model that has been updated to the new 3D-printing age that didn't really need it. In fact, I would even say that the older models actually look better than this new iteration. The design is as great as ever, but I don't like how thin it has become - the guy inside must be built like a stick figure! Then again, even though it doesn't look as good as the old ones it's still a very cool model and the new Haqq HMG is quickly becoming my favourite of the entire range. In game he's a fairly standard HI with the bonus of being religious.

Time for another re-pack! This time has come to the Japanese with the JSA Support Pack. Still there is something new here as CB has blessed us with two distinct miniatures for the Tokusetsu Kohei and Tokusetsu Eisei. Yay! The old models look like always and the new Eisei is a great match for her engineer colleague. She seems to be sporting the autoinjector gun that has been rumoured to make an appearance in N3 and a neat looking nurse's hat. Nice flowing hair brings a little bit of dynamism to an otherwise fairly static model and overall she looks great! And of

course CB will be selling her separately for a while so that people who own the rest of the models in the pack can get her. Here's a separate picture of the Eisei as well.

Next up is another Tohaa Kotail, this time with a Spitfire. Like the first one this sports a short jacket with a hood over the symbiotic armour and has a nice pose that suggests movement without overdoing it. Very cool! The Tohaa Spitfire also has a great design which doesn't hurt. I mentioned last time how scary these guys seem so I won't repeat myself. Just... keep a close eye on them!

Finally we have something different in the Warcor. Up until now it has always been GoGo Marlene on site, reporting from the combat zone, but now finally we have something that look more suitable to the task. Doing running miniatures like this is always a gamble but here I think CB pulls it off reasonably well, especially looking at the middle picture. It certainly looks like a guy who is trying to keep up with some elite soldiers while at the same time trying to avoid a hot firey death! He has some great detailing like the shoulder bag, flak vest and helmet. The little drone is pretty cool as well and something I'd be happy to add to my table even though it has no in-game function. Warcors can of course be used in Campaign Paradiso to help advance your army/SpecOps.


Aaaand, that's it for another couple of weeks! Of all these releases the Combined Army starter is my clear favourite, followed by Kasym and the Warcor. I'm really excited for December though as we'll get to see the new Hac Tao! Not to mention the release of N3 of course.

In other news my friend Claes has just decided to get into Infinity and got himself a solid Haqqislam starting force. This is great news for me as I haven't had any Infinity players in my personal gaming group and I think it will help me get to actually play a lot more! :D